With a new high-tech loading system, the Mayfield Village Fire Department is looking to improve safety for both EMS workers and patients alike.

The system, now installed in two ambulances with plans for a third in the near future, allows for raising and lowering of the stretcher with the push of a button, greatly reducing the strain put on safety workers' bodies.

Created by the Michigan-based company Stryker, a power loading system in the ambulance will then lift the patient into the ambulance, with hardly any assistance from the safety worker.

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An arm from the ambulance latches onto a bar under the cot, the legs collapse up into the rest of the stretcher and it is then simply pushed along a track into the back of the ambulance.

Lt. Craig Neyman with the Mayfield Village Fire Department said the department applied for and was awarded a grant of more than $34,000 from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, which covered about two-thirds of the cost of the lifting system.

The department was also due for new battery-powered stretchers, which the village agreed to pay for, Neyman said.

"The city was great to work with. They took one look at it and said 'That's a great idea,'" he said.

The old system involved a lot of rough, harsh movements that put both the workers' and patients' safety at risk. Cots are much less likely to be dropped and the track in the ambulance also secures the stretcher in case of a crash.

"This is probably one of the biggest developments for safe patient transport," Neyman said.

While the system, with its 700-pound maximum load, will greatly help paramedics with heavier patients, Neyman said it will be used for all patients.

Through his research in applying for the grant, Neyman said he learned a typical back injury costs a fire department about $50,000, so the system will basically pay for itself by avoiding just a few injuries.

"It just totally eliminates back liability," he said. "We've come a long way."

An easy-to-follow green light system alerts workers when the system and batteries are working properly. Should something go wrong, a manual over ride can be activated to allow for transporting patients the old fashioned way.

In Euclid EMS coordinator Lt. Jay Northup has seen great improvements in worker health since the department switched to the power cots about 18 months ago and back injuries have dropped about 90 percent. Cot drops have also been basically completely eliminated.

Euclid handles about 6,200 calls per year, about six times as many as Mayfield Village.

"Now we have guys not having to waste their backs," Northup said. "The human body was not meant to do that 18 times per day."

While Euclid does use battery-powered hydraulic cots, it does not have the automatic loading system.

The success of switching to the power cots alone has made the automatic loading system more of a luxury than a necessity, especially during recent difficult economic times, Northup said.

"It's nice to have if you have the money to do so... but wants and needs are two different things," he said.